Whatever alias, cultural phenomenon, or musical transformation Calvin Broadus decides upon, the world always takes notice. With album thirteen now in the books, the trapped-in-the-90’s hollering of fans calling for a Snoop release reminiscent of the perennial classic Doggystyle is purely white noise. More so than any other Hip Hop Artist (even Kanye) the Godfather of The West Coast is profoundly steeped in his own artistic intuition rather than fan expectations. On the flipside however, Snoop arguably is unrivaled when it comes to seducing his wide-reaching audience with good vibes.
The content on Bush pins its attention south of the border from that tree, a groovy funk-ridden ode to summer hook ups. What at first seemed like an odd pairing between Snoop and The Neptunes resulted in a freshly rejuvenated career for Snoop in the 2000s; the collaboration yielding some of his strongest material like Tha Blue Carpet Treatment and Paid Tha Cost To Be Tha Boss in just a four year span. Snoop, being a founding member of the G-Funk movement of the 90’s and a devout student of the Parliament/Funkadelic school of groove, combined with Pharrell’s latest trending toward nostalgic Funk-Pop and their award-winning chemistry together, Bush reads like a musical blessing on a paper. But Snoop’s seasonal ode to DTF sensibilities is mostly marred in an overdone formula that produces sporadic results.
The undercurrent of Bush reinforces a popular yet largely erroneous assumption that many of Snoop’s albums are always good for a few catchy singles, but heavy on filler. Most of the album’s material sounds as if it was recorded in one fleeting jam session, songs repeatedly blending in with each other with little adherence to replay value. Of course, the presence of Snoop, Pharrell’s melodic crooning and Stevie Wonder’s sparse harmonica on the Innervisions-inspired opener “California Roll” is a crowd pleaser; the sound of warm West Coast nights set to wax. “R U A Freak” is another early winner, combining Snoop’s pimp sentiments with his newfound penchant for grown and sexy harmonizing.
But it doesn’t take long for the uniformity of Bush to rear its repetitive head. For the duration of his career, Pharrell has been much too swift on his toes to get caught up in ephemeral tastes — an artist who transcends trends and inevitably inspires poor man’s imitators in droves, such as his work on Rhythm & Gangsta. But for the majority of Bush, Pharrell seems to become trapped in a sonic one-track-mind. Many of the instrumentals sound quite like B-sides to tracks like “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself To Dance” with neither the masked or unmasked Daft Punk in attendance. Coupled with Snoop’s party-and-fuck-centric content, many of the tracks inevitably bleed together.
Bush is clearly meant to be a party record, and along that vein, Snoop sometimes acts as the plus one rather than the main attraction. Some of his greatest work to date such as “Ain’t No Fun” and “Bitch Please” came about through a selfless philosophy, the rhythms themselves on Bush such as his on “Run Away,” featuring Gwen Stefani, both elect for minimal mic time to allow the instrumental to take center stage. What results is aimless, nursery harmonizing on rehashed production. Conversely, sometimes there is too much Snoop for his intended purpose. “I Knew That” rings as the premature lovechild of “Let’s Get Blown” and “Sexual Eruption” without the rarefied air of an instant club smash.
His legend solidified tenfold, Snoop has not survived this long off personality alone. Even his most lackluster projects contain gems, and “Peaches N Cream” is one of them. Snoop and Charlie Wilson play off each other’s energy, and the instantly catchy nature of the track justifies the notion that the diminished returns of Bush are the result of an excellent dream deferred by poor execution. The album concludes with the more Hip Hop oriented “I’m Ya Dogg,” complete with an enthusiastic Kendrick Lamar verse that gains the album some last minute momentum. Aside from “Run Away,” none of the tracks on Bush are utter drag-and-recycle-bin drop material, the album is a surprising letdown from two legendary artists who have (literally) a platinum track record.
So Hiphopdx, is that 3 and a half stars from a hip hop standpoint or a popular music standpoint?
This album and that song peaches and cream remind me of riff raffs new shit. I think snoop dogg is biting at this point.
nice album been enjoying for a week!
See fellas! Bush isn’t a Hip-Hop album. Knowing that Rapping is an ability, and Hip-Hop is a genre using Rap, Bush counts as a funk album containing some rap verses. It’s not Hip-Hop in anyway. Don’t compare it to Hip-Hop albums.
In Bush, snoop is a singer, not a rapper. That’s why he has invited some rappers like T.I. and Kendrick to rap on his album.
Also, vocals in Bush ain’t supposed to have a meaning. They’re like other instruments. Don’t pay attention to the meaning behind words of this record.
If you wanna enjoy Bush, DON’T LISTEN TO IT, HEAR IT. It’s nice for having a ride around the city and chilling.
The problem is, he hasn’t done much in funk side of his work. Pass the record to a funk fan, and they’ll tell you that Bruno Mars could ruin his whole album with one single track.
Horrible review. This album is fire yall, give it a listen. Funky as hell, perfect summertime music.
It’s not hip-hop but it’s great music for living a good life.
The album making you feel high without any smoke. Nice one, no doubt!
it is a happy summer time, something to groove to type of album u can play the whole through!
run away is one of the best songs on the album….
hiphopdx gives one of the worst rappers ever in young homo thug a 4 star review, yet give 3.5 star review for another quality album by one of the most consistent MC’s ever in hip hop history. Hiphopdx get a fucking clue on what hip hop is.
didnt listen to it yet. But why would they give it 3,5 stars when they think its shit.
I am honeslty dissapointed by the low score. Usually you guys nail the reviews. Why are you giving it a 3 and a half just like every other web site?
This clearly shows me that reviwers and the “mainstream media” does’t know wtf they are hearing. This is a brand new sound, I dont even know how you can call it “funk”.. its more like RnB+Funk mixed with a little bit of Hip Hop. You guys are not understanding this sound.
None of the songs sound the same, it’s funny reviers are saying this but they never mention that when reviewing Chief Keef, Drake, especially Drake, and whoever.
The first 2 singles arent even the best songs on the album, but they are banging! Run Away is a very powerful song that all of you missed listening. Did you even hear the message in the song? No?
And this isn’t your old Snoop Dogg, this is SNOOPZILLA the same guy from 7 Days of Funk.
I give this album a 4 and a half. I would give it a 5 but the song with T.I doesn’t really fit on this album.
I have listenetd to this album since may 6 back to back nonstop. I really do hope they make a second album, and a second 7 days of funk album.
ps: HipHopDX did you really give Yung Thug Barter 6 a higher score?? That guy CAN’T SPEAK ENGLISH! He has no flow and no skills but you give him a higher score?
Are you realizing that this make your site look very very stupid
Spot on DX Fan…
ps: Kendrick killed it with his flow
This is Snoops album and all you comment on is a 45 second verse from Kendrick. You probably didn’t even listen to the album…smh.
Yes I did. The whole CD is dope. I was just sayin Kendricks flow was versatile and unique something I ain’t heard since the 90’s. Even though it was very short.
It’s hard for HIPHOPDX to give credit to a good album… smh they just handing out 5 star albums to Kendrick an J Cole, hhdx the whole crew is a bunch of shit rolled into sushi roll.. they just fishy
A Cole album has never gotten more than a 4. And that’s the way it should be. None of his albums deserve anything more.
thats because kendrick and Cole’s albums are excellen. Kendricks album isn’t for everyone, if you dont understand the meteohors and the concept he used for the album you will get los. Coles album was excellen, theres no way around that along with Big Krits album. Snoops new record i found to be boring, it just seems to blend together. I’ve had it for almost a week now and still haven’t finnished it.
it’s a cool album it got it’s on style and the best thing is the production i mean Snoop ain’t spitting nessesary lyrics on this wich seems clearly it’s a feel good album.. but a 3,5 DX was you on Kendrick Lamars dick again?
Edibles on of my favorites people hating and just talking about the Kendrick feature SHAME ON U !!! FOR REAL kendrick is wack
i actually dislike edibles. i can do with out that track for some reason the rest of the album sounds better with out edibles maybe because it just start off from the top were as the other tracks groove you in from the beginning
Man this album is so SMOOTH !!! Yall hating
Oha das album ballert richtig
weak funk album with a singing snoop and throwaway beats by pharrell
Pure Garbage. These 2 should have made the album together 10 years ago before Snoop fell so far off
This album is phenomenal. 3.5 rating is a joke. Yeah sure an album like Kendrick’s has a deeper concept and message to it, but there are musical moments on TPAB that just aren’t good. Like how many times can you repeat the same phrase on chorus? I love that album, but I have to skip a lot of it.
Bush, on the other hand, sounds amazing start to finish. You can put it on at a party and the whole thing fucking jams.
I know it’s kind of apples and oranges, but at the end of the day I want a record where I don’t want to skip anything. That’s something that’s actually pretty rare on a hip-hop album. This record delivers that. 100% bangers.
dope summer shit!
been pumping it for a week now and loving it!
fuck yea brilliant stuff party stuff u can jus leave it on bitches love it relax hiphoip heads dnt try 2 break the album all down inshit not for that relax lol fuckin hiphop/rap/music police always got something – 2 say smoke a blunt throw the album on relax have a beer throw on the bbq its sumetime calilife if u know what i mean playa westcoast go get that murs album 2
Spot on
i would like these songs if there were 1 or 2 per album like normal. i love snoop but i dont wanna hear an entire album of him and pharrell singing. it sounds like they made the same song over and over again. i can do the same dance move to every song. still love snoop though.
^ This.
It’s actually a good album, but the songs dont stand out much from one another
dope album period
great album
I prefer his actual hip hop albums. Every since Egotripping I feel like we’ve kinda gone downhill. He should be releasing albums like these under “Snoop Lion” if anything and have two sounds going on. Remember back when Snoop said “You never catch me lookin R&B, I might be in a 3 piece suit lookin way OG”. Well…..Bush (and Malice and others) are straight R&B.
Pretty decent… way better than the Snoop Lion Reggae joint. More of a funk/disco album… it has an old’ school vibe to it.
Let down?? wow…but yet…dudes like game can get away with having so many features and not really put together a cohesive album by himself iite hiphopdx
Epic!!!